by Guest » Sun Jul 25, 2004 9:27 pm
Hey D,
I know you got mesquite down there, but I don't know about alder.
A trick that an Indian friend showed me is to use alder that's been down for at least a year and its best if the bark is a bit moldy. It usually has a reddish brown color to it on the inside layer against the wood and sometimes on the outside it gets a white looking mold on it. (Sounds creepy doesn't it?) Around here the Indians cook their salmon, cut into strips, stuck on a stick, with the stick stuck in the ground next to the fire. They use this type of alder. They make these long fires about ten feet long and about two feet wide, then place rows of thes sticks in the ground on both sides of the fire. (If it's not windy)
Some people cook the cheeks of the salmon also, it's a small spot of meat behind the jaw and in back of the eye. You need a pretty good sized fish to be able to get the cheeks. I don't mess with them unless the fish is at least 30 lbs.
Since I use a smokin' grill, I place the cleaned salmon, whole minus the head and guts of course, in a tin foil tray. Before I put the salmon in the grill, I coat the inside of the fish (Where the red meat is) with about 1/4" layer of mayonaise. This helps keep the moisture in the fish. I also grind fresh pepper from a hand mill over the fish too. Some people like too add lemmon juice also. Others use a bit of brown sugar, I don't use that unless I'm going to smoke the fish. Once the fish is setting in the tinfoil tray and on the grill, I wrap the top of the fish with foil also. Then I put the cover on the grill and stand by with my water squirt bottle, just in case the chunks of alder start to flame up. It takes about 20 -30 minutes for a good sized fish.
Alder yeilds a somewhat sweet tasting smoke.
If your unsure about this, I would reccomend cutting a salmon into steaks and try one or two steaks, before doing a whole fish this way. It's real easy to overcook salmon.
If you can't get alder, try some apple or hickory works well too.
So Hey,
Since you're from Texas, I'm sure you could give me a tip or two about using mesquite. I've tried it a few times and I think I need to cut back on the amount of chunks I use on the briquettes, because I allways seem to over power the meat with too much mesquite flavor.
Happy Grillin'